Max Verstappen’s father, Jos , has kept silent about his son’s team in recent weeks, but it has come to light that his current respect is not by his own decision, but at the express request of the Milton Keynes team after the criticism that he launched at the Monaco Grand Prix in which Sergio Pérez took the victory.
Before this weekend’s Silverstone race, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko recalled that the older Verstappen accused the team of favoritism towards Checo Pérez and spoke of a phone call to the Dutchman to give him a ‘pull on the ears’.
“As soon as I read it, I called him up and said, what’s up, Jos?” Marko revealed. “He admitted he was wrong, but he said he was a father and as a father he could have his own opinion. I agreed with him on that, but asked him to keep his opinion to himself.”
“These statements do not help the cause. On the contrary, they create tensions in the team and give journalists reasons to make big headlines. But in reality, Jos, from the sofa in his living room, does not see everything that we see being in the track,” said the Red Bull manager.
In Monaco, Verstappen’s father showed his disappointment at the strategy that ended up giving Pérez the win and left the 2021 champion third. In qualifying, an accident by the Mexican prevented Max from improving and from the fourth starting position Red Bull did not he could use him to attack the Ferraris, as they did with Checo.
“Red Bull achieved a good result, but at the same time they didn’t make an effort to help Max to be the leader,” said Jos Verstappen at the time. “I am disappointed that the team put Checo’s interests first.”
Since his arrival in Formula 1, as happened to Lewis Hamilton many years before, Verstappen’s father has accompanied him and has not hesitated to show his opinion after each race, whether positive or negative.
His son is undoubtedly the star driver and the pearl of the energy drink team, but both Helmut Marko and director Christian Horner believe that they are the ones who should guide their pupil and will not tolerate any more disrespect for the decisions they make.
